Wednesday, May 6, 2009

In the beginning...

Last weekend, at the Christian Writers Renewal Conference in Seattle,
Dennis "Doc" Hensley taught a class on literary fiction. I touched on
a few of his points in the last post. Today, I'll pass on what Doc
said belongs at the beginning of any story.

A. Introduce the main character so the reader can bond. SHOW the
character doing what he does and who he is, as opposed to an
information dump in a narrative paragraph. For example, if the
protagonist is a competent, neat-freak, high-powered business woman,
show a conservatively dressed woman march into the office, order the
staff around, and straighten a picture on the wall. The reader
understands her from her actions and her speech, and it whets the
reader's appetite for more.

B. Let the reader know what kind of story it is. If it's a murder,
begin with a body. If it's a comedy, begin with something funny.

C. Set the tone quickly and clearly. If the story is full of irony and
cynicism, those must be present in the first few paragraphs. If it's a
horror story, set the dark mood.

D. Establish the locale, both where and when. Nothing drives a reader
crazy like reading a story set in the Caribbean on a cruise ship, only
to find out six pages in that the story takes place in 1945 instead of
modern times.

E. Get to the conflict quickly. Doc offered five different ways to
accomplish this:

1) Show a strong descriptive passage, as in "Red Badge of Courage."
The description of the scene (the unfolding of a battle scene) sets an
ominous tone that leaves the reader feeling something spectacular is
about to occur.

2) Show tension through dialogue, as in "The Return of Tarzan," when
the old man's wife catches her first glimpse of the ape man and utters
her lustful reaction aloud. Her husband is clueless and demands a
reason for her reaction. She refuses to elaborate, with her eyes still
glued to Tarzan.

3) Start in the midst of the great tension, as in "The Moon is Down."
This Steinbeck novel shows enemy forces overrunning a small town
without any resistance.

4) Start right at the beginning of the action, as in "The Cask of
Amontillado." Montresor states that he will have his revenge against
Fortunato, then the tale is off and running, showing the reader
exactly how that revenge is achieved in the wine catacombs with bricks and mortar.

5) Suspenseful dramatic irony: the reader knows what's going on (what
the danger is), but the protagonist is clueless, as in "Jaws." The
reader knows the shark is coming; the swimming teenager does not. Her boyfriend begs her to leave the water, the shark closes in, she doesn't come out of the water, the boyfriend begs, the shark gets closer...

That's where my notes end. Class broke for lunch, and if Doc had
anything further to say on the matter, he didn't elaborate. In my next
post, I'll talk about Janet Lee Carey, a fantasy author who taught a
fabulous class on "How to revive a Failing Story."

-Sonja

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Seattle Writer's Renewal

Last weekend I attended the Christian Writer's Renewal Conference in
Seattle. Keynote speaker Dennis "Doc" Hensley inspired us with his
talk on the Power of Words; agents and editors offered advise and
listened to writers pitch ideas; teachers dispensed wisdom; and Clint
Kelly gave away books. It was a magnificent time to chat with other
writers, listen to professionals, and generally make a nuisance of
myself by following my favorite people around the building so I
wouldn't miss anything they said. Over the next several posts, I'll
dispense a little of the information I soaked up and try to convince
all you writer-types out there to attend a writer's conference if you
haven't already done so.

In his keynote address, Doc Hensley said the English language contains over 616,000 words, and as authors, all we have to do is string them together in the proper order. "We are not creators of words," Doc said, "we are re-arrangers of words." He gave an animated reading of "The Jabberwocky" to illustrate is point that even nonsense words have the power to move the reader to great emotional heights. His amusing stories had the audience laughing so hard, it was difficult to take proper notes.

In his three-part class, Strategic Writing, Doc analyzed a short story
by Jack London ("War") to see how he used object symbolism, irony, and flashback. When I first read the story, I hated it (tragic endings aren't my thing), but after seeing Doc pick the story apart, I had to admit that it's a work of art and I learned a ton from the experience. We also discussed the symbolic meaning of colors, numbers, and names (my favorite example was Perry Mason, who "parries" all the prosecutors offensive attacks and them builds his case, just as a mason builds a wall), and the Nine Basic Plot Points.

In my next post, I'll share the five items Doc Hensley said should
come at the beginning of every story.

-Sonja